History

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Antiquity

The city was founded by settlers from Thassos in about the 6th century BC,
who called it Neapolis (Νεάπολις; "new city"). Neapolis
was a town of Macedonia, and the harbor of Philippi, from which it was
distant 14 km. It probably was the same place as
Datum (Δάτον),
famous for its gold mines (Herod. ix. 75; comp. Böckh, Pub.
Econ. of Athens, pp. 8, 228, trans.), and a seaport, as Strabo (vii. p. 331) intimates:
whence the proverb which celebrates Datum for its good things.
(Zenob. Prov. Graec. Cent. iii. 71; Harpocrat. s. v. Δάτος.) Scylax does, indeed,
distinguish between Neapolis and Datum; but, as he adds that the
latter was an Athenian colony, which could not have been true of
his original Datum, his text is, perhaps, corrupt in this place, as
in so many others, and his real meaning may have been that Neapolis
was a colony which the Athenians had established at Datum. Zenobius (l. c.) and
Eustathius (ad
Dionys. Perieg. 517) both assert that Datum was a colony of
Thasos; which is highly probable, as the Thasians had several
colonies on this coast. If Neapolis was a settlement of Athens, its
foundation was, it may be inferred, later than that of Amphipolis. Neapolis was
a member of the Athenian League, as a pillar
found in Athens mentions a contribution of Neapolis to the
alliance. Neapolis also minted coins in antiquity.

Byzantine
Era

Kavala Old Town - Panagia

In Byzantine times the city was called
Christoupolis by the Greeks and Morunets by the
Bulgarians. In the 6th
century Byzantine emperor Justinian I fortified the city in an effort
to protect it from barbaric raids. In the 8th and 9th century Bulgarian attacks forced the
Byzantines to reorganize the defense of the area, giving great care
to Christoupolis with fortification and a notable garrison. Due to
the location of Christoupolis, the city experienced an economic
flourish. During the Norman
raid in Macedonia (1185), the city was captured and was burned.

Ottoman
Era

House of Mehemet Ali

Kavala was part of the Ottoman Empire from 1387 to 1912. In
1391 sultan Bayezid I In
the middle of the 16th century, Ibrahim Pasha, Grand Vizier of Suleiman the Magnificent,
contributed to the prosperity and growth of Kavala by the
construction of an aqueduct.[2] The
Ottomans also extended the Byzantine fortress on the hill of
Panagia. Both landmarks are among the most recognizable
symbols of the city today.

Mehmet Ali, the founder of a dynasty that ruled Egypt, was born in Kavala in 1769.
His house has been preserved as a museum.

Modern
Kavala

Picture of the port and downtown

View of Kavala

Kavala was captured by the Bulgarians in First Balkan War in 1912 and Greek Navy during
the Second Balkan
war in 1913. After the Greco-Turkish War of
1919, the city entered a new era of prosperity because of the
labour offered by the thousands of refugees that moved to the area
from Asia Minor. The development was both industrial and
agricultural. Kavala got greatly involved into the processing and
trading of tobacco. Many buildings related to the storage and
processing of tobacco from that era are preserved in the city.

^Kiel, Machiel (1971). "Observations
on the History of Northern Greece during the Turkish Rule:
Historical and Architectural Description of the Turkish Monuments
of Komotini and Serres, their place in the Development of Ottoman
Turkish Architecture and their Present Condition". Balkan
Studies12: 416.